


In Dread Hogwarts...

by dark_pookha



Category: Cthulhu Mythos - H. P. Lovecraft, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: HPFT, Hogwarts, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-25
Updated: 2017-11-25
Packaged: 2019-02-06 12:26:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12817488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dark_pookha/pseuds/dark_pookha
Summary: As the moon becomes full, it is time for the student-kine to make their perilous journey to Dread Hogwarts where Cthulhu lies dreaming.For Cat!'s Hogwarts AU challenge.





	In Dread Hogwarts...

**Author's Note:**

> Cthulhu and all of the Cthulhu mythos is the property of H.P. Lovecraft and the many others like August Derleth and Robert Bloch who contributed to it.

Ebon-robed and hooded figures, awash with eldritch energy dripping from their twisted and distorted wands herded the student-kine into the rubble that had once been King's Cross station, long before the sorcerous rise of the miscegenated overlords. The near-complete hybridization of the human race had occurred, despite the best efforts of scientists and sorcerers, and the Deep Ones had completed their nefarious plan. One of the students made a run for it, feet scrabbling over the bent rebar and shredded concrete. His hood popped off, revealing his damning, mostly human face. Perspiration poured from his glistening forehead, from under his sable locks. A livid scar shone there also, perhaps a reminder of past transgressions against his captors. Their bulbous eyes peered from under hoods as they turned to watch. The boy crested a buckled, rippled piece of the flooring in between what remained of platform 9 and platform 10.

"Come-argh!!!" he shouted as a bolt of amaranthine magic blasted from charred structural pillar he stood near. His heroic form crumpled as St. Elmo's fire played over him. He twitched once, twice, thrice and then stilled. All there heard his last gurgled gasping for breath. One of the fell shepherds walked to his body and extended his doughy, suckered hand-tentacle. He wrapped it around the dead boy's ankle and heaved him into the pit where once trains had chugged and steamed. They should have heard it hit the floor, but all their ears could perceive was a kind of gulping, slurping sound. None went to investigate.

The fell shepherd pointed at the twisted wreckage where the boy had fallen and the student-kine ambled slowly to it. As each reached the place where the boy had met his demise, they disappeared with a sickly green flash. Each time the hooded figures would shout.

"Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn!"

When the last of the grim-faced children had vanished, the twisted and gnarled escorts joined their hands and tentacles together. Once more they cried out.

"Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn! Ph'nglui mglw'nfah Cthulhu Hogwarts wgah'nagl fhtagn!"

A slow swirling coruscation of green vaporous fog drifted up from the broken ground and enveloped them. With a sickening twisting of the universe they slid in between the realities, through the timeless reaches of space-time, eternity always within reach, but never within grasp. They all felt close to a cosmic truth, but then they were wrenched free and shoved mercilessly back into their mortal shells. They appeared around the children-kine on the shores of a flat, dark-mirrored lake, illumined only by the shattered face of the full moon. They herded their charges to a large flat-bottomed barge with an enormous beast-man holding a long elder-wood pole. It was clear that this beast-man was going to treat the barge as a punt and push them across the eerie silence of the dead water.

Some of the children-kine hesitated and they were pushed ungently onto the waiting boat. When the last of them had embarked, the giant beast-man stood, towering over them. He stretched out his huge hands and flexed his lightly-suckered hands. With a mighty heave, he pushed the pole against the shore and the boat lurched from the shore. He pushed quickly in a rhythm. One of the children-kine started a chant to keep the time and most of the rest joined in. The beast man smiled a gap-toothed grin, revealing his leprously white gums and palate. He grunted along with them.

They reached approximately the center of the lake, when a large black eye broached the surface near them. The boat lurched to a halt as a verdurous, slime-covered tentacle shot up over the prow. The tip of it reached out and touched the forehead of each student-kine in turn, gracing them with its beneficent, malevolent blessing. After it had touched each of them, it hesitated, it stayed raised over the throng, only the tip dripping with water and quivering slightly, in anticipation or indecision, no one knew.

Suddenly, it whipped down and grabbed a slim girl. Her hood fell back as it lifted her over the others, revealing her piscine face. Her catfish whiskers shook as the tentacle held her.

"Behold!" she shouted. "I have been chosen above all others by our dread lord!"

The other student-kine fell to their knees and the giant bowed his head.

"Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn!" they chanted, over and over, until the eye surfaced near them again. The tentacle lowered the girl to the eye and then slowly, it pushed her into it. The black, featureless eye didn't blink or move as the tentacle heaved, strain showing on its taut, verdigrised flesh. Impossibly, the girl disappeared into the eye, becoming two-dimensional as she did, until only a reflection of her remained on the surface of the eye. The brave student-kine who dared look saw her still praising her dark lord as her form drifted away slowly down into its eye, like a photograph wafting gently toward the ground and then disappearing into darkness.

The eye receded back into the stygian depths of the lake, leaving behind not even a ripple. The beast-man pushed his pole back into the water and heaved. The barge moved closer and suddenly, the mists parted and the student-kine beheld the dark towers of dread Hogwarts where they would learn the ways of their masters and learn the infernal secrets of time and space if they dared.  
They rose as one and formed up into lines as they barge made landfall. The fell shepherds were waiting for them. They grunted when they saw the sacrifice had been accepted and ushered the student-kine to a door where they had them queue up. Each of them had to kneel before a small, twisted altar made of glossy obsidian. A fell shepherd pushed a student-kine's forehead on a sharp protrusion of the altar and twisted their heads, opening a small wound. It cut open its tentacle-hand on the protrusion as well, and mixed their blood with its then it would take the student-kine through the door. None of the others could pierce the veil of the door. In a moment, the fell shepherd would return, or perhaps it was just another identical one. It would repeat with the next student-kine in line until they all had entered the castle.

Then when they all had been escorted through the doorway, the fell shepherd lowered his hood, lit a cigarette, revealing his troll-like orange face and tufty hair. He breathed in a puff of smoke, coughed, then exhaled through his nose and gills. He only drew on the cigarette thrice before sighing, lifting his hood and going through the door himself.


End file.
